1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to camping equipment and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for camp cooking, particularly using a camp oven or Dutch oven.
2. The Background Art
Camp cooking has experienced many forms, adopted many technologies, and often proceeded in the absence of technology. Grilling, typically by means of charcoal, gas grills, smokers, open fires, and the like has taken an iconic place in American cuisine. Pots and means to heat them are another area with a multitude of systems available.
Tabletop grills, massive built-in grill systems, and about every size and shape of system in between has been marketed. Likewise, every source of heat imaginable from solar energy to firewood, has been tried or used in some way for cooking. Thus, whether one is seeking a feature-rich, built-in, permanent cook station in a home or on a patio, or is rather seeking to slightly ameliorate the sharp edges of roughing it in the woods, cooking equipment has a place in family camping.
The Dutch oven is a cooking pot or container fashioned as a three-legged, flat-bottomed kettle, having a fitted lid with a rim extending upward from the outer edge thereof to hold burning wood, charcoal, or the like thereon. The Dutch oven was a staple of the American colonial period, and the settling of the American west. World championships are still held today to test and showcase the cooking skills of individuals who enjoy cooking with a Dutch oven.
Dutch ovens require fire below as well. Some surface is required to support the oven and the fire or “coals.” That surface may be the ground. Sometimes a steel table holds the fire. In this regard, adaptability may be a very desirable feature of any equipment system. Whether exercise equipment, automobiles, boats, tools, or any other device, adaptability to different conditions, circumstances, and the like may be a very valuable feature.
It would be an advance in the art to provide an ability to keep a fire (e.g., whether burning wood, charcoal, or some type of burning gas) spaced above and away from a supporting surface, such as a table, lawn, pavement, or the like. A small, compact, foldable stabilizer could be helpful. Likewise, it would be an advance in the art to provide handles on such a cooking station that might permit movement thereof, even when hot.
Likewise, it would be an advance in the art to provide space for setting utensils, lids from kettles or Dutch ovens, or the like nearby, and not on the ground where they will pick up dirt, grass, and so forth, and may drop it back into the pot or oven. Similarly, it would be an advance in the art if such a system were made to be comparatively lightweight, and easily portable. It would be a further advance in the art if such a system could be folded up into a minimal envelope or spatial volume requirement for transport, storage, and so forth.